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SAMAYASARA
COMMENTARY
The Self out of ignorance, not realising its own pure nature, may identify itself either with the impure emotions and ideas of inner consciousness or with the external objects of knowledge. In both these cases the ignorant Self figures as the agent. It may either imagine that anger, love, fear, etc., are its own attributes or that the external things such as dharma, etc. are of its own nature. The commentators explain both these erroneous beliefs through illustrations. A possessed person identifies himself with the spirit possessing him and behaves exactly as if that spirit is acting. He is able to carry out certain extraordinary deeds such as carrying a heavy stone or a heavy log of timber through the influence of the spirit and yet he thinks that he performs all these deeds. Anger, fear, affection, etc. are all emotions due to alien influence and yet an ignorant person takes these to be his own just as a possessed individual imagines himself to be the agent of the extraordinary feats of strength exhibited by him. Secondly a person concentrating his attention upon an object of thought very intensely may end in identifying himself with that object. On account of the intensity of concentration on the object, he may forget to notice the difference between the Self attending to and the object attended to. He may cry in illusory joy, 'I am that object' 'I am Mahāmahișa; the great and powerful animal (Buffalo) 'I am Garuda, the king of Birds; I am Kāmadeva, the god of Love; I am Agni, the fire (evidently taken from Vedic mantras).' This false identification of the Knower and the object known as the result of intense concentration is given as an illustration for the ignorant identification of the Self with the external categories such as space, time, dharma, adharma, etc. Both these notions of identity are condemned as erroneous, since they are alien to the pure nature of the Self.
एदेण दु सो कत्ता आदा णिच्छयविहि परिकहिदो।
एवं खलु जो जाणदि सो मुंचदि सव्वकत्तित्तं ॥१७॥ edeņa du so kattā ādā Ņicchayavidūhim parikahido evam khalu jo jāņadi so mumcadi savvakattittań (97)
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